Foggy Morning on the Blue Ridge Parkway – A Photo Essay

Every couple weeks or so during the green seasons I travel up to milepost 413 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Friends of the BRP has a volunteer program called Adopt-an-Overlook that I have participated in for six years. I am responsible for keeping Pounding Mill Overlook clean and green, trash free, and desirable for the tourists. Saturday, August 13, 2016 was one of those days.

I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to participate in this program, and I believe it has paid off in ways other than simply clean overlooks on the Parkway. Since I began picking up trash at Pounding Mill in 2011, I have noticed that there is less and less litter as time goes by. I have no scientific evidence to back this up, but it seems when visitors see how clean the overlooks are, they do their part to keep it that way by not throwing out trash. People seem to take pride in our beautiful public lands and wild places.

Usually when I go up there I combine it with a hike nearby. My plan on this day was to hike the Art Loeb Trail across Black Balsam and Tennent Mountains to compile some photographic memories. Sometimes plans just don’t work out though. Elevations above about 5,500 feet were completely obscured in a massive fog bank. I went about half way up the Black Balsam summit, couldn’t see more than 20 feet, so I turned around. I would look for more photo opportunities below the clouds. Following are the results. Please feel free to leave your comments below the gallery.

 

 

This post was created by Jeff Clark. Please feel free to use the sharing icons below, or add your thoughts to the comments. Pack it in, pack it out. Preserve the past. Respect other hikers. Let nature prevail. Leave no trace.

 

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5 Comments

  1. Natasha Bright

    These pictures are gorgeous!

  2. Tim Truemper

    That was one of your best collection of photos (and you have quite a few good ones). I really liked the one of Looking Glass Rock that was somewhat grayish in tint. You mentioned in your text about keeping a location clean and its influence on others. A professor at Virginia Tech who was a social psychologist did a fair amount of work on littering and other environmental responsibility behaviors. Keeping an area consistently clean does tend to reduce littering to a considerable degree. The more a place gets “trashed” the more disinhibited some people get in throwing something on the ground or neglecting to pick up a piece of trash that was not there own. So glad you posted something today. I came back from West Virginia and stopped at Grandview State Park. Did not have time for a longer time out. Just kind of whetted my appetite for a longer day. Hope the temps were good for you btw.

    • Thanks for the kind words Tim, and thanks for sharing the anecdote. I definitely believe there is a psychological component to it. Not to mention, the cleaner you keep something, the easier it is to clean when the time comes.

      • Tim Truemper

        You’re quite welcome. And thanks for your part in helping the BRP.

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